Rehoboth Beach's ocean outfall project must be online by June 1. Contractors doing ocean work have until March 31 to complete their portion of the project. Environmentalists worry if deadlines are extended again that there may be negative impacts on marine life. Officials did not say what will happen if deadlines are missed.
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Crane off the coast of Delaware for work on the Rehoboth Beach wastewater ocean outfall project.(Photo: Jason Minto, The News Journal)Buy Photo

Contractors working on Rehoboth Beach’s ocean outfall project hit a snag last month, leading to the abandonment of a 700-foot long hole off Deauville Beach, along with the steel casing that got stuck inside.

GHD, the engineering company that is overseeing the project for Rehoboth, said it has yet to confirm Manson Construction Company’s story about why they had to drill a second, new hole only 10 feet south of the original spot.

“There is really no proof to what they’re claiming,” said GHD Principal Kelvin George. George said Manson claimed that as workers were pushing the steel casing through the hole, they hit hard material described as “cobble” that derailed and damaged the sectional casing. They were unable to pull the casing back out, he said.

“They decided it was easier for them to just move 10 feet away … and start drilling a new hole from land,” he said. That newly drilled hole will curve around the obstruction, and reconnect with the original path leading to the diffusers where wastewater will be dispersed into the ocean about one mile offshore.

The city is facing a June 1 deadline to stop discharging its wastewater into the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal, stemming from a 1998 order to stop direct discharges polluting the Inland Bays.

For years, city officials debated how to best dispose of the resort town's waste. Under former Mayor Sam Cooper, the Atlantic Ocean outfall project was chosen over alternative methods such as spray irrigation, despite outcries from environmentalists. They worried about the impact of construction and pollution on marine life, as well as the possible negative impacts impaired water quality could mean for beach tourism.

While the city has the approval of voters and state officials to borrow up to $52.5 million for the project – which includes the mile-long ocean pipe and 40-foot-deep diffusers, a force main to send water from the treatment plant to the beach and upgrades at the wastewater treatment facility – so far, contracts add up to about $37 million.

It remains unclear who will bear the burden of the cost of drilling a second hole for the outfall pipe, said city spokeswoman Krys Johnson.

But at a recent city workshop meeting, Schlosser questioned why large change orders – like an additional $40,000 for work on the force main portion of the project – seem to crop up every time the city tackles large construction projects.

“The city is continuously over budget and over schedule on projects like this,” she said. City officials said the project is not over budget, citing a $2 million credit offered by Manson Construction.

As for the June 1 deadline, George said force main work should be done by then. Meeting a March 31 deadline for ocean work will heavily depend on weather. Neither the city nor state officials immediately responded to questions about what will happen if those deadlines are missed.

"The city has the expectation the project will complete successfully and timely," Rehoboth City Manager Sharon Lynn said in an emailed statement provided by Johnson.

William Ullman, a professor at the University of Delaware’s School of Marine Science and Policy, said it is not unusual for problems to arise on large projects like an ocean outfall, but it is unusual to encounter cobble off Delaware’s coast.

“Cobbles [can be about] the size of a fist,” he said. “I’ve only been around for 30 years, but I’ve never seen that kind of material come out of that area. I’m just surprised they ran into something that would be a cobble or something geological they couldn’t get through. The engineers for Rehoboth did a survey and found nothing out there that was going to cause a problem, so to stumble upon it while drilling is kind of bizarre.”

Ullman’s colleague Arthur Trembanis agreed that cobbles are uncommon, but encountering a large, impassable object underground in Delaware isn’t impossible. There is also a chance the engineering surveys done before drilling began could have missed the reported obstruction, he said.

“Are cobbles possible? Yes,” said Trembanis, an associate professor who directs UD’s coastal sediments hydrodynamics and engineering lab. “Even boulder-size deposits, but they are not super common. It depends on the depth.”

The drilling snafu is not the only recent upset for the project, which began last year after waiting years for approval. Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Shawn Garvin signed off on the outfall permits in May.

Recent back-to-back nor’easters have delayed work. Manson’s barge retreated to the Broadkill River near DNREC’s Pilottown Road office in early March as storm-fueled winds and waves created dangerous conditions, and has not yet returned.

Contractors need at least 15 days of good weather – at the peak of Delaware’s nor’easter season – to complete the ocean portion of Rehoboth’s new wastewater disposal system, George said. Permits require ocean work to be completed by March 31 to avoid impacts on marine life, some of which are already migrating into the area.

“Right now, on paper it’s showing it is possible,” George said.

Environmentalists worry that if work continues past the March 31 deadline – which has already been extended from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers original Feb. 28 deadline – sensitive species could be jeopardized. The Corps did not respond to an interview request.

“It seems like whenever a construction project asks for an extension, they get it,” said Suzanne Thurman, executive director of the Lewes-based Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute. “The violations of the Marine Mammal Protection Act are blatant.”

Thurman said dolphins are arriving along the coast, and it is about to be peak time for seals in the area. Of most concern, she said, are the large whales that will soon be migrating nearby.

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Seals are showing up along Delaware's beaches, where they are commonly seen resting on the sand or rocks from February through April. While most are just resting, some may be sick or injured and in need of rescue. To learn more, go to www.merrinstitute.org. To report a stranded animal, call the Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute at 302-228-5029.
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Other environmentalists also have raised concerns about the endangered Atlantic sturgeon, which spends most of its adult life in the ocean and moves to coastal rivers to spawn in April and May.

“Our Delaware River population of sturgeon are genetically unique and there are only 300 spawning adults left,” said Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum. “They are literally on the brink, and every time we turn around they are facing another threat and another approval that will impact their numbers from our government agencies.”

Thurman’s arguments about potential environmental harms of the outfall have largely been ignored. An appeal she filed against the project last year was dismissed because the state Environmental Appeals Board ruled she had no standing. Federal and state permits assert any negative impacts would be minimal, and that most animals are able to get out of the way.

A work in progress

Installing more than 11,000 feet of force main, which will send treated wastewater from the city’s treatment plant at the south end of Roosevelt Street to Deauville Beach and into the ocean, also has hit some literal bumps in the road.

Rehoboth commissioners last week approved a $40,000 change order after engineers discovered a county sewer line on Canal Street near where they hoped to install the new 24-inch pipe.

At that meeting, Rehoboth Commissioner Schlosser questioned why the contractors were not aware those sewer lines existed.

“I'm not an expert in laying pipe, I'm not I admit it, but it seems like this is pretty fundamental to this project," she said. "What are we doing to anticipate fundamental project elements going forward so $40,000 here, $50,000 there ... is not going to happen in the future? This continuously happens here."

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Work being completed for the outfall project along Canal Street in Rehoboth Beach.(Photo: Jason Minto, The News Journal)

Rehoboth Beach Mayor Paul Kuhns asserted the city is not over budget.

"We're not even close to being over budget," he said.

The multifaceted outfall project is supported by $52.5 million in low-interest loans from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, with $40.5 million for the outfall project and $12 million for a planned biosolids project and other treatment plant upgrades. The council approved issuing those loans at a 2-percent interest rate in August 2017.

All current accepted bids for the outfall, treatment plant upgrades, pumping station and force main add up to about $37 million. Kuhns cited a total project cost of about $43 million, accounting for additional engineering fees and contingency money.

That includes $27,655,850 for Manson Construction’s outfall work, $5.7 million for A-Del Construction’s force main work, and $4.02 million for Allan Myers MD Inc., to upgrade the plant and construct a pumping station.

Those bids and estimates do not include a second phase of upgrades at the treatment plant estimated to cost $9.2 million in the state's funding review.

Johnson did not respond a request for clarification about the biosolids project and the $12 million loan, but minutes from an Aug. 7, 2017, commissioners meeting show that officials said the $12 million would be "reallocated" for plant improvements – more than a week before the loans were recommended for approval by the state council.

Engineers meet on a weekly and monthly basis with contractors, engineers and federal, state, county and city officials about the challenges, finances and progress of the projects. But those meetings are closed to the public because there is not a quorum of elected officials present.

“We provide information to the public every time we have meetings,” Kuhns said. He said technical information shared in those “high-level, internal operational meetings” is boiled down and presented to the public during workshops held every two months.

The county is involved in the outfall project as a “participant” with oversight, but no decision-making power since an agreement was signed last year, said Sussex County Engineer Hans Medlarz, a voting member of the council that approved Rehoboth's loans.

Once the outfall is online, Rehoboth will send its solid waste to the county for treatment and disposal. Customers in the county’s Dewey Beach and Henlopen Acres sanitary sewer districts will have their wastewater treated and disposed by Rehoboth’s new system.

The Rehoboth plant serves nearly 2,600 customers and can treat more than 7 million gallons of wastewater per day, but averages 3.5 million gallons per day. In the summer, wastewater treatment needs are far greater.

Kuhns said a rate study needs to be done before city officials can say definitively how much residents’ sewer bills will increase, but that a decade-old reserve account should help offset drastic rate hikes.

Johnson estimated the average household in Rehoboth will pay $760 annually for sewer service once the outfall is online.